Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Lord has no need of our thanksgiving, and yet...

Jesus said in reply, “Ten
were cleansed, were they not? Where are the other nine? Has none but this
foreigner returned to give thanks to God?”

In
the account of the cleansing of the ten lepers, of whom only one (the Samaritan)
returns to give thanks, our Savior may at first appear to be dejected or hurt
that the other nine have not thanked him. What shall we say to this – Is it
possible that the Lord of heaven and earth, the King of the universe needs the
thanksgiving and worship of man?

God does not rely on his
creation

The
forth weekday preface states: Lord, “you have no need of our praise, yet our
desire to thank you is itself your gift. Our prayer of thanksgiving adds
nothing to your greatness but makes us grow in your grace.” We must insist that
man’s worship of God does not increase God’s glory absolutely, nor does God
require that worship for his own benefit.

Origen
(and, to some extent, St. Irenaeus) had held that God had no need of man’s
worship because the Father was worshiped from all eternity by the Son and the
Spirit. Thus, through an intra-Trinitarian praise, the glory and honor of God
were appeased. Others, notably many in the Nestorian churches of the East, held
that God was called “Lord” from all eternity by virtue of the lordship of the
Father over the Son and the Spirit. In this way, these theologians attempted to
maintain the transcendence of God over and above creation.

However,
it is obvious that such an explanation cannot hold true. The Son and the Holy
Spirit are equal with the Father, thus there can be no true worship between
them. Likewise, as the Father is not superior to the Son, neither can he be
said to be Lord over the Son (except insofar as Jesus is considered in his
humanity). These attempts to safeguard the transcendence of God, failed to safeguard
the equality of the three Divine Persons.

It
is better to say that God is his own beatitude and that the only real relations
in the Most Holy Trinity are active and passive generation (predicated of the
Father and the Son, respectively), active spiration (predicated of the Father
and the Son together), and passive spiration or procession (predicated of the
Holy Spirit). Thus, speaking absolutely, God is only Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit in the intra-Trinitarian life – he is not Lord, nor is he worshiped.
Yet, in these four real relations, God is pre-eminently blessed.

In God, there is no real relation
to creatures

Though,
in creatures, there is a real relation to God; there is no real relation to
creation in God. Put in another way, creatures are really related to God, but
God is only logically related to creatures. This is the great insight of scholastic
theology.

Let
us be clear: The fact that the relation of God to his creatures is only a
logically relation does not make that relation any less true. God truly is the
Creator, but this term is predicated of him on account of creation not on
account of the divine essence. In other words, God is not Creator essentially,
but voluntarily – thus, in creation there is a real relation to God as Creator,
but in God there is no real relation to creation. St. Thomas explains this
well: “Thus, God is called ‘Lord’ by a relation which is implied in the real
relation by which the creature is subject to God. And although lordship is not
a real relation in God, yet is he really Lord through the real subjection of
the creature to him.” (ST III, q.35,
a.5)

Thus,
when we worship or give thanks to God, this does not imply any change in God,
but it does imply a change in us. It is clear that we cannot change God in any
respect – he is the unmoved mover, immutable and eternal. However, though God
does not change, our relation to him really does change; this implies a change
in the logical relation which God has to us – before creation, God could not be
called “Creator” or “Lord”; yet he is now rightly and truly so-called, not on
account of a change in the Divinity, but because of the world’s coming to be.

Why God requires us to give
him thanks

If
we admit that God has no need of our praise or thanks, if we admit that he is
not really related to us at all; we might then ask, “Why does God command that
we thank him?” Here we recall that, although there is no real relation in God
to his creatures, there is a real relation in creatures to God. We can become
more or less subject to him as our true Lord, we can worship him more or less
as our Good God, we can become true sons of our heavenly Father – though these
relations imply no change in God, there is a real change in us; and that is
what makes all the difference!

The
fourth weekday preface, mentioned above, captures this most eloquently saying: “Our
prayer of thanksgiving … makes us grow in your grace.” It is on this account
that Christ our Savior is so dejected that the other nine lepers did not return
to thank him. The Lord is not concerned for his honor (even as a man, he has
received perfect glory from God), but he thirsts for the salvation of those
ungrateful ones. Though completely happy and blessed in himself, Christ desires
the salvation of all and so requires our thanksgiving and praise – not for his
sake, but for ours!

The story of the 10 lepers leaves me a little confused. Jesus told the 10 to go show themselves to the priests in the temple -- as required by Mosaic law. They did as they were told. "On their way" they were healed. Only the Samaritan, who did not worship in the Jersualem temple returned to thank Jesus. Why criticize the other nine for doing what they were asked to do?

@Dori and Richard (Oct 22),Good question. Jesus does not criticize the other 9 for going on to the priests, but for not returning to give thanks. Moreover, there is a strong sense of the "newness" of the Gospel here -- the Jews ought to have realized that the Old Law was passing away...I know this doesn't fully answer the question...but it is, I think, the beginning of an answer...Peace!